SIMPLIFIED LINEAR AND NONLINEAR-ANALYSIS OF STEPPED AND SCARFED ADHESIVE-BONDED LAP-JOINTS BETWEEN COMPOSITE LAMINATES

This paper presents a newly developed unified approach for the analysi s and design of adhesive-bonded stepped and scarfed lap-joints. The ad herends are modelled as beams or wide plates in cylindrical bending, a nd are considered as generally orthotropic laminates using classical l aminate theory. Consequently, adherends made as asymmetric and unbalan ced composite laminates can be included in the analysis. The adhesive layer is modelled in two ways. The first approach assumes the adhesive layer to be a linear elastic material, and the second approach takes into account the inelastic behaviour of many adhesives. The governing equations are formulated in terms of sets of first-order ordinary diff erential equations, which are solved numerically using the 'multi-segm ent method' of integration. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd .